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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 5, 41. Of the Galician Ambassadors, and Concerning Portents

Mir, king of Galicia, now sent envoys to King Guntram. Their passage through the territory of Poitiers was announced to King Chilperic, who then held that region.¹ The king ordered them to be brought before him, and kept in imprisonment in Paris. At this time a wolf from the forests came into Poitiers through one of the gates, and when all the gates were shut, men fell upon him and killed him within the city walls. There were some who averred that they had seen the heavens aflame. The river Loire rose higher than in the previous year, when the waters of the Cher were mingled with it. A south wind blew with such exceeding violence that it levelled forests, cast down houses, bore off fences, and whirled afar even men to their destruction. This wind raged over a breadth of some seven acres and travelled a distance which none could measure. Often, too, the cocks crowed at the beginning of the night. The moon was darkened, and a comet appeared in the sky. A great pestilence followed among the people. The Suevic envoys² were dismissed at the end of a year, and returned to their own country.

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